I'm interrupting this dormant dog-blog to write about my entry into the world of children's literature - there will still be the occasional mention of my erstwhile doggie companion who is still a pup in spirit, if not in size.

7 Jun 2012

Pip gets the 'ahem!' bug

Pip and I have been lost on a beach
somewhere – well, not literally but both busy in our various ways.
After three interviews (for the same job), I now have a proper job - yay!! But, poor Pip has been in quarantine with kennel cough.

He was diagnosed
last Monday...

Him-In-Doors took him out for a walk
in the morning and came home saying Pip had been throwing up. I wasn’t overly
concerned. Pip is a dog and dogs, I have very quickly learnt, do gross things
on an alarmingly regular basis.

Anyway, luckily I was having a
‘writing from home’ day and – very disturbingly – was interrupted as Pip threw
up about six times in the course of an hour. Before he actually chucked, he’d
cough as if he was choking on a giant hairball.

Was this the root of Pip's problem?

Then he’d puke up a bit of
phlegm – and proceed to help me clean it up by licking it up – yuk!

This went on for a while and then I
decided to ring the vet.

‘Have you laid any baits lately that
he might’ve eaten?’ asked the receptionist.

Yes, we’ve had
mice lately and I knew that Him-In-Doors had put some poison around but I knew
he’d been careful to put it out of Pip’s reach.

The receptionist said I should ‘bring
him straight in’ and, trying not to panic, I did.

As we waited in the reception area for
a vet, Pip kept up with his melodramatic coughing – not before puppy kissing
an unsuspecting Golden Retriever. The receptionist came over and asked if we’d
mind waiting outside...

So, tails between our respective legs,
we waited out in the car park. Then the vet – a young woman in her 20s came out
– all brisk efficiency. Pip was still coughing, as Him-In-Doors put it, like Alf with the hiccups. (Check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npvBuDhbTf0)

The vet almost instantly diagnosed Pip
with kennel cough, which is a bit like whooping cough in dogs and is apparently
‘going around’ at the moment. She went back into the surgery and came back out
with an injection for Pip.

By this stage, I’d corralled him back
into the car because kennel cough – as I now know – is highly contagious. The
vet gave him his injection with surprising speed and ease and then said that if
I removed my jacket and/or made sure I didn’t touch anything, I could come into
reception to pay my bill and collect some cough medicine and antibiotics for
Pip.

Administering the cough medicine was a
double-parent job - one to get him in a head lock, the other to stick a syringe
down his throat with the cough medicine. And apparently it wasn’t a good
flavour!

The worst part has been keeping Pip
quarantined for two weeks. The vet said we could walk him very early in the
morning and late at night, when we would be least likely to run into other dog
walkers. As the fortnight has worn on we’ve become less vigilant about the
weird hours and just keep him on a leash and yell out to approaching dog
walkers – ‘Keep back! Our dog has kennel cough!’